The Doctrine of Salvation
How
"Righteousness by Faith"
Really Works
"Righteousness by Faith"
Really Works
Part A:
What is Sin
What is Sin
Lesson 2:
The Result of Sin
&
The Penalty for Sin
(12:30)
The Result of Sin
&
The Penalty for Sin
(12:30)
Lesson 2
Slideshow Transcript
Slideshow Transcript
Before we can understand what sin really is in our personal experience, we need to look back to what happened when Adam and Eve sinned in the beginning of this world's history. What did God do in that emergency, when all of God's plans for the human race were being altered by the choices of the first beings that He created to populate Earth?
What was the penalty for their sin?
Genesis 2:17 - Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
A. They would suffer pain.
B. They would live long lives.
C. Immediate death.
A. They would suffer pain.
B. They would live long lives.
C. Immediate death.
This is a puzzling verse, because we know that Adam and Eve did not die immediately. Yet God was very clear that immediate death would be the penalty for disobedience.
Why didn't Adam and Eve die immediately?
Revelation 13:8 - ...the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
A. God forgot what He had said.
B. Jesus' death saved man from immediate death.
C. God changed His mind about the penalty for sin.
A. God forgot what He had said.
B. Jesus' death saved man from immediate death.
C. God changed His mind about the penalty for sin.
Adam and Eve did not immediately die when they first sinned because at that very moment, the Substitute was placed between them and the penalty of death for their sin. Jesus Christ took Adam and Eve’s place, and personally paid the penalty for their sin by living a sinless life and willingly dying on the cross.
There is a remarkable insight on what happened in the Garden of Eden in the following comments: "Why was not the death penalty at once enforced in his [Adam’s] case? Because a ransom was found. God's only begotten Son volunteered to take the sin of man upon himself, and to make an atonement for the fallen race... The instant man accepted the temptations of Satan, and did the very things God had said he should not do, Christ, the Son of God, stood between the living and the dead, saying, 'Let the punishment fall on Me. I will stand in man's place. He shall have another chance... As soon as there was sin, there was a Saviour... As soon as Adam sinned, the Son of God presented Himself as surety for the human race, with just as much power to avert the doom pronounced upon the guilty as when He died upon the cross of Calvary." (S.D.A. Bible Commentary, vol. 1, pp. 1082-1085)
What we have learned is that Jesus' atoning death directly affected Adam and Eve and the whole human race. Jesus paid the penalty for Adam's sin, exactly as specified in Genesis 2:17. In doing this, Jesus gave Adam and Eve and all their descendants another chance to make different decisions about obedience and disobedience. The suffering and later death experienced by Adam and each of us was the result of sin, not the penalty for sin.
The penalty was paid at that moment by Jesus Christ through His promise to die in our place. Adam soon offered a lamb sacrifice for his sin, showing that he understood that the death penalty would be paid. But the result of Adam’s sin (the curse of sin upon this world) has continued to be a part of human existence ever since then to this very day.
There is a remarkable insight on what happened in the Garden of Eden in the following comments: "Why was not the death penalty at once enforced in his [Adam’s] case? Because a ransom was found. God's only begotten Son volunteered to take the sin of man upon himself, and to make an atonement for the fallen race... The instant man accepted the temptations of Satan, and did the very things God had said he should not do, Christ, the Son of God, stood between the living and the dead, saying, 'Let the punishment fall on Me. I will stand in man's place. He shall have another chance... As soon as there was sin, there was a Saviour... As soon as Adam sinned, the Son of God presented Himself as surety for the human race, with just as much power to avert the doom pronounced upon the guilty as when He died upon the cross of Calvary." (S.D.A. Bible Commentary, vol. 1, pp. 1082-1085)
What we have learned is that Jesus' atoning death directly affected Adam and Eve and the whole human race. Jesus paid the penalty for Adam's sin, exactly as specified in Genesis 2:17. In doing this, Jesus gave Adam and Eve and all their descendants another chance to make different decisions about obedience and disobedience. The suffering and later death experienced by Adam and each of us was the result of sin, not the penalty for sin.
The penalty was paid at that moment by Jesus Christ through His promise to die in our place. Adam soon offered a lamb sacrifice for his sin, showing that he understood that the death penalty would be paid. But the result of Adam’s sin (the curse of sin upon this world) has continued to be a part of human existence ever since then to this very day.
Does death imply guilt?
- Luke 13:1-5 - There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
A. They died because of their personal sins.
B. They died because they were worse than everyone else.
C. They died because they live in a sin-cursed world.
B. They died because they were worse than everyone else.
C. They died because they live in a sin-cursed world.
Here we see that death was not the direct result of their personal sins. They were not more guilty than others. Their death was not the penalty for their sins, but the result of sin, which has affected all who have lived on this earth.
Does suffering imply guilt?
- John 9:1-3 - And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
A. The man was blind because of a sin-cursed world.
B. The man was blind because of his parents' sin.
C. The man was blind because he sinned before he was born.
B. The man was blind because of his parents' sin.
C. The man was blind because he sinned before he was born.
Jesus is saying that blindness is not the penalty for sin, but rather is the result of sin's curse resting heavily on the earth and the human race. There is a clear distinction between the result of sin and the penalty for sin.
When can we have everlasting life?
- John 5:24-25 - Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.
We have everlasting life
when we __________ on Jesus.
believe
when we __________ on Jesus.
believe
Notice that we have everlasting life when we believe, which can be today. However, even for those who believe and have everlasting life, they will still die and must be raised from the dead at Christ's second coming.
Here we have a clear distinction between the first death as the result of sin, which Jesus called a sleep, and the second death as the penalty for sin from which there is no resurrection.
Let me repeat: The first death is the result of sin pervading this earth, while the second death is the penalty for sin. While we cannot escape the results of sin, we can escape the penalty for sin by believing in God.
This means that we can possess everlasting life even while we must die the first death. Thus, the first death (and all suffering) is not and cannot be the penalty for sin. Simply put, everlasting life means no second death, which is the penalty for sin.
Here we have a clear distinction between the first death as the result of sin, which Jesus called a sleep, and the second death as the penalty for sin from which there is no resurrection.
Let me repeat: The first death is the result of sin pervading this earth, while the second death is the penalty for sin. While we cannot escape the results of sin, we can escape the penalty for sin by believing in God.
This means that we can possess everlasting life even while we must die the first death. Thus, the first death (and all suffering) is not and cannot be the penalty for sin. Simply put, everlasting life means no second death, which is the penalty for sin.
- 1 John 5:12-13 - He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
Conclusion:
This means that we must divide the basic idea of sin into two separate parts -- evil and guilt.
- Evil includes all the things which are the inherent result of sin, which includes suffering and death.
- Guilt includes condemnation and the inevitable penalty for sin, which is the second death.
So, we have two different consequences of Adam's sin.
- We have the curse -- the inherent results of sin -- that human beings, animals, and all nature experience, which leads to the first death.
- We also have guilt, which only human beings (who consciously choose to sin) experience, and which leads to the second death – the penalty for their personally chosen and committed sins.
The atonement of Christ covers both of these consequences of sin, but in different ways.
- The atonement must deal with guilt by forgiving the sin, and it must deal with the evil results of sin by recreating and restoring what the curse of sin took away.
- In addition, forgiveness can be ours today, while restoring our perfect nature (without a tendency to sin), which comes with God’s gift of eternal life, must wait until Christ’s return.
Forgiveness is not needed for the results of sin, but only for the guilt of sin.
Thus, the terms forgiveness, justification, righteousness, sanctification, salvation, and the gospel apply particularly to our guilt and the penalty for our sin.
There is a fundamental difference between the result of sin and the penalty for sin. We are not guilty or condemned or lost because we were born into a sinful world. We suffer many results of Adam's sin, including sickness, disabilities, death and a fallen nature. But our sufferings are part of the natural curse of sin, not the willful sin for which we are guilty or condemned. The sin for which we will be lost eternally comes from something else (choice), which will be the subject of our next study.
This is why there is no guilt applied to a cat who tortures a mouse to death, while we hold a human being guilty for torturing someone. The cat is simply following its instincts -- its fallen nature -- without any knowledge of right and wrong, while human beings can be held guilty because of a conscious choice to do wrong.
All animals and human beings suffer because of the results of sin, but they are not automatically condemned because of those results. Guilt applies only to the moral responsibility for the choices we make.
There is a fundamental difference between the result of sin and the penalty for sin. We are not guilty or condemned or lost because we were born into a sinful world. We suffer many results of Adam's sin, including sickness, disabilities, death and a fallen nature. But our sufferings are part of the natural curse of sin, not the willful sin for which we are guilty or condemned. The sin for which we will be lost eternally comes from something else (choice), which will be the subject of our next study.
This is why there is no guilt applied to a cat who tortures a mouse to death, while we hold a human being guilty for torturing someone. The cat is simply following its instincts -- its fallen nature -- without any knowledge of right and wrong, while human beings can be held guilty because of a conscious choice to do wrong.
All animals and human beings suffer because of the results of sin, but they are not automatically condemned because of those results. Guilt applies only to the moral responsibility for the choices we make.
Guilt demands prior knowledge and willful rebellion. It must be from an "informed" choice.